This invention is directed to the fields of mechanical devices and methods of organic chemistry. More particularly, this invention provides a machine for preparing chemical libraries and methods of preparing those libraries.
Chemical libraries are collections of different chemical compounds, usually of the same class. Chemical libraries are useful in screening methods to determine whether any of the compounds have particular properties. Libraries of nucleic acids are particularly useful in hybridization analysis to detect the presence of target nucleic acids in a sample.
Methods in combinatorial chemistry are useful in the creation of chemical libraries. The methods usually involve adding different units sequentially to a base molecule, either randomly or by design. Apparatuses have been described that produce libraries of nucleic acids. These include, for example, U.K. Patent 2,194,176 (Nicholson), U.S. Pat. No. 5,288,468 (Church et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,445,934 (Fodor et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,472,672 (Brennan). Improved apparatuses that increase the speed at which libraries of molecules can be made would be a useful addition to the art.